GAINESVILLE – The developer of Mundy Mill Homes is asking the city of Gainesville to amend the zoning for portions of its 605-acre development, partially in response to the proposed construction of a bridge crossing railroad tracks and connecting the subdivision’s main thoroughfare, Millside Parkway, with Tumbling Creek Road.
The Hall County Commission has been considering the bridge project spanning the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks just north of the University of North Georgia Gainesville Campus since September. The bridge would provide a more direct connection between Mundy Mill Road and Atlanta Highway.
Gainesville Planning Manager Matt Tate told members of the Gainesville Planning and Appeals Board Tuesday evening that Butler Properties, LLC, also requested the zoning amendment, “in order to increase the number of single-family lots, and to better align them with the existing single-family lots within the neighborhood as well as to better align them with the proposed elementary school site.”
Seventeen acres have been set aside within the development for use by the Gainesville City School System.
Butler Properties Manager Wendell Starke told the board, “We are trying to get out of the way of all the traffic that will be brought in to the new school…anticipating having an enrollment of about a thousand students.”
One of the zoning adjustments being requested involves relocating 357 condo/apartment units to a site currently zoned for 137 condo/apartment units, situating all 494 units in close proximity. The area that loses the 137 units will then be used for additional single family homes.
Overall this will increase the total number of single family homes in the huge complex from 1148 to 1208, but it will remove the potential traffic problem of an apartment complex adjacent to the new school.
“We want to move away and let them (school system officials) do what they need to do to make a safe entry,” Starke added. “We know that the move away from the school will make the school site and the traffic pattern much better.”
“When the bridge that will ultimately join the University to this project is finally built,” Starke said referring to the greatly increased traffic volume expected through the development, “That’s the goal and the reason for the change.”
Luca di Benedetto is president of ATEX, Inc., a 100,000-square-feet facility situated on 8-acres on Tumbling Creek Road and at the foot of the proposed bridge. He asked Board members to explain in greater detail what effect the zoning amendment might have on his plant.
“I’m here for more information and to better understand,” di Benedetto said.
di Benedetto was primarily concerned that his plastic fabricating business might generate more noise than residential property owners want and that his company would not be able to pursue future expansion plans.
“We do know that when you do mix industrial with residential there can be problems,” di Benedetto said.
Tate assured di Benedetto that the buffer provided by the distance between ATEX and the residential sections of Mundy Mill Homes would be more than sufficient.
The zoning amendment was approved unanimously by the board and will now go to the City Council for two readings, public comment and a final vote to approve or reject the request.
